Woden Experiment to Activate Square

Woden-thoroughfare

Street Furniture Australia, with support from the ACT Government, has begun the Discovery phase for #WodenExperiment, a six-month furniture installation to activate Woden Town Square in Canberra.

Members of the community, local businesses and politicians gathered to discuss the project and share their experiences of the square at a workshop held in March.

Around 40 participants brainstormed issues and opportunities for the square around Retail Experience, Community Involvement, Comfort and Amenity, and Wow Factor.

“It was exciting to see so many people filling the room, with a great mix of people from community, business and local government creating an atmosphere of high energy and interest,” says Diana Hill, Manager Capital Works – Urban with Transport Canberra and City Services.

“As a result many great ideas about issues and opportunities were discovered and collected by Street Furniture Australia.

“It was heartening to hear people voicing the importance of everyone contributing to the Woden Experiment and recognising that for it to be a great success, it needs to be a collaborative exercise.”

Workshop-Post-It's-Woden

The workshop is part of a six-week user-centred Discovery phase, including empathy interviews, journey mapping and observation. A report will soon be delivered to the ACT Government and community, with recommendations for next steps.

“The aim is to see how we can re-energise this place to become more vibrant and welcoming for the community,” says Street Furniture Australia Design Director Mark Armstrong.

“It was wonderful to see people who work and live nearby, as well as representatives from local businesses and community groups, come along to help us understand their needs and wishlist for the square.

“This will help us to design a six-month installation that caters to the people who use this place each day, or to those who often pass through but currently do not spend time in the area.”

The meeting was attended by two local Murrumbidgee MLAs, Chris Steel for Labor, and Caroline Le Couteur for the Greens.

Woden Town Square is an open outdoor plaza in Phillip, Canberra, that links Woden Bus Station with a Westfield and the Library, Access Canberra, small businesses and offices for public service organisations such as the Department of Health.

The six-month project is results-driven and builds on the success of #BackyardExperiment in Garema Place, which created a popular, colourful, family friendly space in a place similar to Woden Town Square.

“In October 2016, #BackyardExperiment increased foot traffic by almost 200%, and attracted more families, couples, seniors and social groups to spend time in a thoroughfare,” says Street Furniture Australia Marketing Manager June Boxsell.

“Adding some colour, lawn, moveable tables and seats, and colourful lights at night, created a welcoming atmosphere and transformed the area for the eight days of the activation. We want to see similar results for Woden, this time with a longer-term installation that tracks how the activation performs through seasonal change.

“It was inspiring to meet the community and see how passionate they are about this place. Everyone has strong opinions about the changes we could make, but the good news is we all want to see a more welcoming, comfortable town square for Woden.”

To join the movement, follow #WodenExperiment on Facebook.

The SFA team observed and mapped foot traffic in the square. The routes have corresponding desire lines in the lawn spaces.

The Discovery team observed and mapped common foot traffic paths. These can be seen in desire lines, below.

Desire Lines Woden

Desire lines appear in the worn lawn where people really want to walk.


make an enquiry

Opening hours are from Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm.

enquire now

recent news

Street Furniture Australia joins Landscape Foundation of Australia as a Founding Partner

Street Furniture Australia is proud to announce a new partnership with the Landscape Foundation of Australia, as their first Founding Partner. The Foundation is a newly formed not-for-profit dedicated to championing the protection, restoration, enhancement and sustainable management of natural environments in Australian cities and towns. With nearly 90% of Australians now living in cities and townships, the Foundation is committed to halting the decline of natural environments and restoring a sustainable relationship between people and nature, to ensure their mutual health and survival. The visionaries behind the Foundation – founding directors Linda Corkery, Noel Corkery, Catherin Bull AM and Chris Champion – share the belief that environmental degradation can be reversed through high quality planning, design and management practices. Through grant-making and facilitation, the Foundation will fund research to …

  • 13 nov 2023
read more

2023 Good Cause Giveaway goes to Swanbury Penglase charity project

Street Furniture Australia has donated $45k of Linea show-products to Baptist Care SA’s WestCare Centre, a project nominated by Swanbury Penglase, as part of the Good Cause Giveaway for the 2023 Festival of Landscape Architecture: UN/EARTH. Now in its third year, the 2023 Good Cause Giveaway received six fantastic entries from landscape architects and Councils for local Adelaide projects, with the winner selected by the UN/EARTH Festival Creative Directorate. The jury said: “The Festival creative directors found awarding this year’s Street Furniture Australia’s (extremely generous) Good Cause Giveaway a difficult task as all of the entries were very worthy.” Winners Swanbury Penglase with 2023 AILA Festival Creative Directorate. Photo: Frankie The Creative. “We were particularly conscious of the incredible work that the team of volunteers at Baptist Care SA’s WestCare …

  • 10 nov 2023
read more

Highlights from ‘Activating Western Sydney’ knowledge exchange

Cumberland City Council, the Australian Institute of Landscape Architects and Street Furniture Australia in November co-hosted a factory tour and knowledge exchange for Councils about creating great public spaces and local manufacturing. Guest speakers presented enriching case studies and conversations about Country, climate, culture and community at the Street Furniture Australia factory, which is located within the Cumberland LGA in Western Sydney. 55 people attended the event. Head of Marketing and Innovation with Street Furniture Australia, June Lee Boxsell, said, “Activating Western Sydney was a fantastic opportunity to share ideas on bringing joy to our local communities while also celebrating the completion of Merrylands Civic Square — a remarkable human-centred development at the heart of Cumberland City Council. “With Street Furniture Australia positioned right at the doorstep of Western Sydney-based …

  • 21 nov 2023
read more

related news

Applying User-Centred Design to Public Space Activation

Street Furniture Australia has used empathy interviews, personas, observations, journey mapping and other user-centred research techniques to focus Woden Experiment on the community. These qualitative methods unearth rich detail about the lives and needs of people who use Woden Town Square. The aim is to inform the design of the six-month installation with a “community first” philosophy. “We employ user-centred design techniques in the making of our furniture, and #WodenExperiment now offers the opportunity to apply this methodology to public places,” says Mark Armstrong, Street Furniture Australia Design Director. “One of the challenges of public space is meeting the needs of people from many different walks of life. Through our empathy interviews and observations of the town square we have come up with six key personas to design for. “The …

  • 22 may 2018
read more

Woden Experiment in the ACT Legislative Assembly

Following the Woden Experiment Workshop, Chris Steel updated the ACT Legislative Assembly about the project. Below is a transcript of his speech. You can also watch the video on Facebook. Chris Steel: “I talk a lot in this place about Woden Town Centre, and I’m going to talk about it again today, because it is exciting to see change taking place in the town centre, the new residential developments, the light rail stage two on its way, and a new focus on placemaking in the centre now as well. “While many of the spaces in Woden are privately owned, those under ACT Government control present an opportunity for improvement and activation, particularly Woden Town Square. “On the 26th of March, Woden Library played host for the #WodenExperiment town hall, kicking …

  • 17 apr 2018
read more

#WodenExperiment on ABC Radio

ABC Radio Canberra’s Jolene Laverty chats with Street Furniture Australia’s June Boxsell about #WodenExperiment on Drive. The following is a transcript of the program, which aired on Wednesday April 4, 2018. JL. The social project that has increased foot traffic in Garema Place by 200% is going to be replicated in Woden. June Boxsell is the Design and Marketing manager of Street Furniture Australia and she runs these programs, hi June. JB. Hi there, thank you for having me. JL. Thank you for joining us. So it’s called the #WodenExperiment and it’s based on the very successful #BackyardExperiment, which was held in Garema Place a few years ago. Can you just take us back to 2016 and remind us what the Garema Place experiment was? JB. The #BackyardExperiment was a …

  • 13 apr 2018
read more